Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Green Lanes, late 1940s

Between Stanhope and Rutland.

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Comment by Hugh on April 7, 2008 at 21:10: Just look at those shop fronts, particularly the door and windows on United Dairies. Now all gone. Very sad.

Comment by alistairj on April 7, 2008 at 23:19: Seems lavish detailing on the dairy for the selling of 'pasteurized milk' but a real shame that it is now lost. Fortunately not all local dairy architecture has gone the same way.

Comment by Hugh on April 7, 2008 at 23:28: "Pasteurized" with a 'z', I note.

Comment by GK/OD on April 7, 2008 at 23:57: Been in the Old Dairy a few times and would recommend it

Comment by matt on April 8, 2008 at 6:57: There was a Dairy still operating until about ten years ago, on Turnpike Lane. A older couple ran it with her looking after the shop and he doing the milk rounds. He parked his float on land next to their end of terrace shop. Capital Accommodation have now in filled that with their offices. The Dairy was operated like yesteryear - wonderful. Gone forever now as the couple retired and the next generation of business moved in.

Comment by Penny Astley on October 23, 2020 at 17:40: Does anyone remember the name of the laundry on Green Lanes that did what my mum called bag wash? We used to take our sheets there. Also the place on, I think, the bottom of Frobisher, near the Regal cinema, that sanitized old rags. It had a very distinctive smell as you walked past it. As kids it kind of spooked us and we used to run past it.

Comment by Stephen Wingate on October 23, 2020 at 20:18: Oceana? Blue vans collected your dirty washing and brought

it back in white linen bags.

Pre washing machines. Close to Colina road, on Green Lanes

Comment by Hugh on October 23, 2020 at 20:55: I think Stephen's right. It was Oceana Laundry that used to offer a bagwash laundry service. But they weren't up by Colina Road. That was another laundry. Oceana was on St Ann's Road, but had a receiving office at 30 Grand Parade.

Harringay had four principal laundries through the first half of the 20th century

- Oakwood Laundry, by Colina Road

- Hermitage / Cyprus Laundry, by Hermitage Road

- Oceana Laundry in Green Lanes / St Ann's Road

- Wise's Laundry, Colina Road (The listig below is from the 1955 London phone directory).

There were a range of smaller ones, includimg one just south of he Beaconsfield. The following is from the Tottenham and Edmonton Weekly Herald, 14th May 1909.

Comment by John Shulver on October 26, 2020 at 15:31: There was also Wise's Laundry Hugh, up the other end of Oakwood in Colina Mews. This has now been converted into flats or apartments. Think it may have had another name at sometime.

My Mum and Dad both worked at The Oakwood Laundry probably in the 40/50s and Mum also later worked at Wise's. Very convenient as we lived in Harringay Road ! Colina Mews (or "The Lucky" as it was known) was second home to us kids. We used to spend hours playing up there and in Oakwoods scrap parcel of land which was known as "The Coals". Coal used to be stored there for firing the boilers and the hot cinders would also be dumped there.

Comment by Hugh on October 26, 2020 at 16:51: Thanks, John. Hadn't heard of Wise's. It keeps it head down in the archives! The only place I could find any trace of it was in a mid-century London phone book. (see edited comment above).

I can see that they moved into the premises formerly occupied by Rest Cartwright Organ Builders (who also built the organ for the Coliseum Cinema). Shown below on 1952 Ordnance Survey map.

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